conditions who have lost their employer-based health care are falling into a huge crack, and they have limited options. If they are indigent, they qualify in most states for a form of Medicaid with new rules dictated by the ACA legislation. This can be good for some and worse for others. In Tennessee, for example, under the BO Medicaid rules, a single mother with a child could qualify for Medicaid with an income 400 percent of the poverty level, but a man could not qualify unless he was below the poverty level. So when, in year one AO, the requirement was changed so men could now qualify at 100 percent of the poverty level, men did better; but women who now also qualify at 100 percent of the poverty level were worse off. And let’s face it, where are most of the children of single parents domiciled? With the mother. The deep thinkers in DC strike again.
If you are not indigent, or are technically indigent but of the mind-set not to be dependent on government care (good for you), you can be very clever and start your own company group insurance. So, for example, you lose your job but take up selling fire extinguishers or working several part-time jobs or selling Amway. You become your own corporation, hire another family member who also needs insurance, and then buy “group” insurance – for the two of you – and this is guaranteed issue in all states, regardless of your preexisting conditions. Unfortunately you are now hit in the face with the new rates, which can be considerably more than you would have paid for the same or better insurance BO.
On a practical level today, I would urge you to seek out a single-family or single-person insurance policy that you can afford, with a high deductible. If you combine this policy with an HSA (health savings account) or you buy it through your own corporation, you have the best of all worlds. The health savings account allows youto put money tax-free into an account to cover the deductible. The corporation allows you to pay for the insurance with “pretax dollars,” so it effectively lowers the cost of the insurance.
If you have employer-based health insurance, to avoid spiraling costs and to avoid the problem of portability, it might be best to own your own policy – but currently you cannot convert directly. Perhaps, someday it will be possible to convert your employer policy to a self-directed, personally owned policy within the same insurance company if you are older. But this is not available today even if, within the same company such as Blue Cross, the employer-based insurance and the single individual insurance are completely separate – it is as if they were two separate companies. So if you lose your job, the fact that you were insured for years with a medical insurance company through your employer does not help you get private insurance through that same insurance firm.
If you are young and healthy, you definitely should consider private, single-party insurance. Some employers will simply put the money back into your paycheck. As an employer I found out I was paying $800 for an employee’s insurance that she could buy for less than $400 for herself. You might make money on the deal by switching.
People in my age bracket got hurt the least by the cost of private insurance under Obamacare. I just purchased health insurance de novo. (I started over.) I am a sixty-one-year-old, healthy, nonsmoking female with a little need for thyroid support and intermittent inhalers for bronchospasm. I was able to purchase health insurance with a $5,000 deductible for under $367 a month (albeit my quote BO was under $200 a month). There is no free lunch. But this does not strike me as exorbitant considering what I am getting for it.
If in the future the government outlaws all private care and makes government the “single payer,” then insurance will become meaningless. But in any country that allows a two-tiered system as England has had, real catastrophic, high-deductible,
If you are not indigent, or are technically indigent but of the mind-set not to be dependent on government care (good for you), you can be very clever and start your own company group insurance. So, for example, you lose your job but take up selling fire extinguishers or working several part-time jobs or selling Amway. You become your own corporation, hire another family member who also needs insurance, and then buy “group” insurance – for the two of you – and this is guaranteed issue in all states, regardless of your preexisting conditions. Unfortunately you are now hit in the face with the new rates, which can be considerably more than you would have paid for the same or better insurance BO.
On a practical level today, I would urge you to seek out a single-family or single-person insurance policy that you can afford, with a high deductible. If you combine this policy with an HSA (health savings account) or you buy it through your own corporation, you have the best of all worlds. The health savings account allows youto put money tax-free into an account to cover the deductible. The corporation allows you to pay for the insurance with “pretax dollars,” so it effectively lowers the cost of the insurance.
If you have employer-based health insurance, to avoid spiraling costs and to avoid the problem of portability, it might be best to own your own policy – but currently you cannot convert directly. Perhaps, someday it will be possible to convert your employer policy to a self-directed, personally owned policy within the same insurance company if you are older. But this is not available today even if, within the same company such as Blue Cross, the employer-based insurance and the single individual insurance are completely separate – it is as if they were two separate companies. So if you lose your job, the fact that you were insured for years with a medical insurance company through your employer does not help you get private insurance through that same insurance firm.
If you are young and healthy, you definitely should consider private, single-party insurance. Some employers will simply put the money back into your paycheck. As an employer I found out I was paying $800 for an employee’s insurance that she could buy for less than $400 for herself. You might make money on the deal by switching.
People in my age bracket got hurt the least by the cost of private insurance under Obamacare. I just purchased health insurance de novo. (I started over.) I am a sixty-one-year-old, healthy, nonsmoking female with a little need for thyroid support and intermittent inhalers for bronchospasm. I was able to purchase health insurance with a $5,000 deductible for under $367 a month (albeit my quote BO was under $200 a month). There is no free lunch. But this does not strike me as exorbitant considering what I am getting for it.
If in the future the government outlaws all private care and makes government the “single payer,” then insurance will become meaningless. But in any country that allows a two-tiered system as England has had, real catastrophic, high-deductible,
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